Panel: Buses should have priority over rail to Denver's Northwest suburbs

The Regional Transportation District shouldn’t abandon expensive plans to build a rail line serving Denver’s northwestern suburbs, but the mass transit agency’s first priority should be building a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system to serve the area.

That’s according to the recommendations of the Northwest Area Mobility Study Planning & Development Committee that were presented to RTD’s board of directors on Tuesday.

The committee has been looking at what to do regarding transit in the Westminster, Boulder, Broomfield and Longmont areas northwest of Denver for the last few years.

The committee recommended RTD focus on finishing BRT upgrades on U.S. 36 and then also add BRT systems to two other major corridors in the area, along State Highway 119 between Longmont and Boulder, and U.S. 287 between Longmont and U.S. 36, according to a presentation from the committee to the RTD’s board of directors.

The board is expected to take action on the recommendations in June.

BRT operations in the two corridors could be built for about $114 million and could draw up to 14,000 riders a day by 2035, said Chris Quinn, RTD’s planning manager for the mobility study.

If RTD paid for transit improvements to those two corridors out of its existing revenue streams, the projects could be finished in the early 2020s — or sooner if other money became available, Quinn said.

RTD launched the study after estimates of building a commuter rail line between Westminster, Boulder and Longmont soared to $1.4 billion in 2011. The line would draw an estimated 10,000 riders per day by 2035.

The cost estimates were based on information from BNSF Railway, which owns the tracks and right-of-way along RTD’s proposed route for the Northwest rail line. The line was part of the original 2004 FasTracks proposal approved by voters.

“Recognizing that we won’t be able to complete the Northwest rail line in the near term or the mid-term — within RTD’s 2035 planning horizon — the question was what can we do to satisfy some of the mobility needs in the northwest area sooner than that,” Quinn said.

The committee that looked at alternatives included representatives of local governments and businesses in the northwest area.

Its final recommendations include:

Keeping the rail line in the FasTracks plan, and reevaluating its feasiblity every year in case conditions change.

That RTD focus on completing a BRT system along U.S. 36, which is currently under construction.

That the agency expand the BRT system beyond U.S. 36 to six additional corridors in the area, with two corridors given priority: State Highway 119, also called the Diagonal Highway, between Boulder and Longmont; and along State Highway 287 between Longmont and U.S. 36. The buses along Colorado 287 would carry riders all the way into downtown Denver, with stops along the way, Quinn said.

That RTD work with CDOT to figure out how to speed bus traffic along northbound I-25, possibly by running buses on the shoulders of the highway, for people who are heading out of downtown Denver for Boulder.

That in addition to the two priority BRT corridors, RTD should add BRT facilities along four other corridors as funding becomes available: South Boulder Road, Colorado Highway 7, Colorado Highway 42 and 120th Avenue.

Building BRT along all six of those corridors would cost about $304 million and draw an estimated 27,800 riders per day by 2035, according to the study.

Quinn said the study forecast that improvements along the two priority corridors, SH 119 and U.S. 287, would have “a pretty big bang for the buck.”

A BRT system on Colorado 119 is estimated to cost about $57 million and draw 5,000 riders every day by 2035. Buses along that corridor currently carry about 1,900 riders per day, Quinn said

A BRT system on U.S. 287 is estimated to cost about $56.3 million and draw up to 9,000 riders every day by 2035, up from 1,300 riders a day currently, according to Quinn.

Money to pay for the improvements, however, remains an issue.

Because the proposed BRT system isn’t part of the voter-approved FasTracks system, RTD can’t use FasTracks sales tax money to help pay for the improvements, Quinn said. But that’s also good news, because there’s very little FasTracks money available until 2035.

RTD does have money, estimated at up a total of about $1.1 billion, available in its regular revenue streams starting about 2020 through 2035, Quinn said.

RTD has filed an application for a $1.5 million federal grant, using the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery” or TIGER, to start environmental planning for the two BRT corridors.